


Yazakh

by moonmoth (greyvvardenfell)



Series: Fictober 2019 [21]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyvvardenfell/pseuds/moonmoth
Summary: Yazakh tells Nadia about their past, especially their time in Lucio's mercenary company.
Relationships: Nadia (The Arcana)/Original Character(s)
Series: Fictober 2019 [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696495
Kudos: 1





	Yazakh

**Author's Note:**

> For the Fictober prompt: "Enough! I've heard enough."
> 
> Takes place in the Moth & Raven universe.

We tried not to hurt innocents. When I was responsible for our contracts, we didn’t. But he tended to believe what he wanted to believe, and anyone can be cast as the innocent when enough money changes hands. 

My people raised me to see the truth, not fall for fanciful deceptions. There will always be a tell, something that rings false to the well-trained ear, a sour note in a chord packed too tightly for others to hear. I can hear it. It is not boastful to say so. This was to be my primary duty, to sift through lies for honesty. But by the time I came of age, there was no longer a need. Those who lied had already won, bringing ruin to our city and famine to our farmlands. They turned to slaving to pay their debts, though they called it by a euphemistic title and touted its benefits to those who had fallen through the cracks. It stank of deceit. My aunts and uncles gathered those of us who had survived and we ran before we could be run into the ground. 

City life does not prepare one for anything but. One does not learn how to find food or water in the hills, or how to sharpen sticks into stakes and spears, or how to navigate by starlight. One does not learn how to tell the coming weather from the direction of the wind or how to build, start, maintain, and bank a fire. All of this and more we learned within the first month. Our city was isolated at the foot of vast mountains, far taller than these, at the mouth of a river and the shore of a sea. Had we thought before walking blindly into the dark, surely we would have skirted the sea in search of refuge, but instead we struck inland, south across the foothills. It was only a matter of time before the first of us perished.

I asked her if she was okay, and I knew she was lying. Even the others could have said she was lying. She was old, and weak. That she made it as far as she did is miraculous. It is not cruel to say so. We buried her hands and her head beneath a flat stone on the sunlit side of the last hill she climbed and left the rest for the wildcats that screamed at us from the clifftops. They stopped protesting as time went on: their bellies grew too full.

We found a city eventually, those of us who were left. We were hardened and impoverished and strangers to everyone we met, and I believe we lost so much getting there that we lost each other as well. I felt no more kinship to the people who had been my family than I did to the merchants and guards eyeing me with disdain at every turn. Every time they had promised it would only take one more day, that we would be better off away from our city, that tomorrow our luck would change, the lie sizzled in my ears and turned my trust in them to poison. I did not miss them when I left. Nor did I think twice about joining Lucio when he gave me the opportunity to go.

He strolled into the covered market like it already belonged to him. Perhaps the jewelers and outfitters and blacksmiths and butchers were merely renting from him, their lord. Of course, it was a lie. Most things about him were. And yet he was confident in his ability to stand in his lies and own them. Everything from his name to his accent to his left arm was fake and did not pretend to be anything else. I had never seen anyone like him before. And, more importantly, he had never seen anyone like me.

Lucio was, and I’m sure you’ll agree, first and foremost an opportunist. He became a mercenary out of convenience. He married you for the same reason. He had his goals, certainly, but no set plans to accomplish them. His life was dictated by serendipity from the start. He needed direction. And he found it with me. It is not exaggerating to say so. I secured us contracts and allies. I organized supplies. I advised him on the intrigues around certain issues. I became what I had always intended to be, under a banner I would never have seen had I not left and left again. 

But he was easily swayed by gold and blood. I could not always stop him. The greatest regrets in my heart are the times he spurned my advice or never sought it at all. The lives of the people he slaughtered rest heavily on my shoulders, since they never seemed to weigh on his. Nopal. Karnassos. Vesuvia itself… 

——

“Enough! I have heard enough, Yazakh.”

“Nadia. I displeased you.”

She rubs her temples, crimson eyes blazing distress. “I… no. It is difficult, to hear of my ex-husband, and that you took such responsibility for his actions, but I am saddened, not displeased.”

Yazakh bows their head. “I understand, my lady. I will not speak of this again.”

“No!” Nadia leaps to her feet, the teacup in her lap tumbling to the floor and shattering. “Kodori Yazakh, I will not be another burden for you to bear!” She flies across the parlor, sinking down next to Yazakh’s armchair and folding their hands in hers. “I must know that you understand this, my love. Your past, the things you have seen and lost, I will carry them with you. You need no longer be simply my head guard, no more than I your lady.” She smiles. “We could be partners.”

They’re quiet for several moments, yellow-gold eyes shifting rapidly between hers. “I have never had a partner before.”

“Would you like one?”

“Yes.”


End file.
